This invention relates to machines for wrapping bales, more particularly so-called big round bales, in a stretch/cling film to prevent the ingress of air to the hay and thereby to improve the quality of the silage.
It is now conventional practice to utilise baling machines to produce big round bales of hay, typically of the order of four to six feet in diameter and four feet in length, and to wrap the bales so formed in a stretch/cling film of plastic for storage purposes.
Various mechanisms are known for wrapping the film around the bales, all such mechanisms wrapping the bales as an entirely separate operation from the baling procedure either by picking the bales up in the field in which they have previously been deposited by the baler, wrapping them and then leaving them in the field, or wrapping the bales at a predetermined site, typically a stack yard, to which the bales have previously been transported.
However, the quality of the silage is, to a large extent, governed by how quickly air is excluded from the baled hay-13 clearly transportation to a stack yard or the like prior to wrapping enables the air to get to the hay and reduces the quality of the silage.
Wrapping in the field is therefore to be preferred. However existing mechanisms treat the wrapping operation as an entirely separate stage from the baling operation, and there is inevitably a delay between the steps of producing the bale and the wrapping thereof, interposed between which are the steps of lifting the bale from the ground prior to wrapping and returning the wrapped bale onto the ground after wrapping. This overall operation, as well as being time-consuming, requires the presence of manual labour and involves susbstantial handling of the bale in a manner which can damage the bale and/or the film applied thereto.